"I selected Max Hattler’s new piece of abstract animation without the slightest hesitation as his brief but exquisite film Model Starship was strikingly different from other nominated films. According to what I have read on the artist’s website, the idea of a collaboration came about during the interview with a fashion magazine called Journal, which gave him a make-up bag full of autumn/winter 2012 products. Max Hattler came up with such astonishing images only using the luxury cosmetics in the bag from Givenchy, Laura Mercier, NARS, Shu Uemura, Shiseido and YSL. Turning the familiar products into something new and creating a scene that you could see in a sci-fi movie by filming using their shapes and materials, with images reflected from mirrors, was sensational. The artist was able to produce images that are vague and abstract but clear and concise at the same time as he went through the process of observing the products, imaging, and recognizing their patterns. I completely understand why he titled his art film A Very Brief Encounter with Another World. Bringing his imagination into action, he recreated the so-called secular ready-made products into an eye-catching art film. It gave me a refreshing jolt of the same kind as when Fontaine of Marcel Duchamp shocked the contemporary art world. Anyone who was disappointed to see the film end so soon can invest in Max Hattler for its longer version." DOTMOV 2012, selected and commented by Ki Young Park (Sugarcube)

"All Aboard Model Starship: A couple of months ago, we dropped the artist Max Hattler to tell him how much we admired his work. We did a little Q&A with him right here on Journal and then met up for coffee. The idea of a collaboration came about and a make-up bag full of autumn/winter 2012 products were duly thrust into his arms. This short abstract film – Model Starship – (with sound by Eduardo Noya Schreus) is the result. We love it! What do you think?" Journal Magazine (23 Aug 2012)

"Everyday objects are transformed into a science fictional landscape." San Francisco International Film Festival 2013

"Model Starship is an all too brief, but no less impressive, new piece of abstract animation from Max Hattler commissioned by fashion magazine Journal." Directors Notes (23 Aug 2012)

"We've posted several of Max Hattler's abstract narrative-free stop-motion films on the Animated Review in the past. His latest film, 'Model Starship' is a continuation of the visuals and the otherworldly appearance of these earlier shorts. 'Model Starship' was commissioned as an art film by new fashion magazine 'Journal' and will be followed up with a sequel at an undisclosed date."Animated Review (Aug 2012)

"Max Hattler's stop-motion animation work Model Starship: Unclear Proof opposes mass-produced objects in a genuine miniature star war. Luxury industry products
like high-end make-up and artefacts from Prosecco production and consumption are considered here solely for their plastic and formal qualities, thus questioning their social status and value. The battlefield is tainted in a paradoxical way, as it stages the violence of an egocentric, superficial and success-orientated society while taking place on a bright blue sky. It reminds us of the naïve lightness with which a child can appropriate the most expensive objects and transform them into simple pawns of a game." Isabelle Henrion, curator, The Way Objects Go, Podroom Gallery, 2017

"Model Starship: Unclear Proof ... displays a matrix of different ready-mades and uses them to mimic starships that are traversing the galaxy, transforming the purposes and meanings of the ready-mades."MOCA Taipei, 2016